Significance Of Pre-Treatment Interferon-Gamma Release In Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Background/Aim: We retrospectively investigated the significance of pre-treatment interferon-gamma release (IGR) as a biomarker for predicting the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment (ICI-tx). Patients and Methods: This study included non-small-cell lung cancer patients who received ICI-tx between January 1, 2016 and April 30, 2019. IGR was measured using the positive control of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We defined the pre-treatment cut-off level of IGR as 10 IU/ml. Results: Fifty-four patients were divided into two groups; those with an IGR <= 10 IU/ml (lower group: LG) (n=15) and those with >10 IU/ml (higher group: HG) (n=39). The time to treatment failure (TTF) in the HG was significantly longer than that in the LG. In multivariate analyses, C-reactive protein and IGR levels were significant risk factors for TTF. Conclusion: Pretreatment IGR level of >10 IU/ml is recommended to identify those patients who will respond favourably to ICI-tx.